Many Ignorant of Waist Fat Risk

January 28, 2010|61,622views

Almost nine in 10 people are not aware of the risks of carrying extra fat around their waistline.

A survey of 12,000 Europeans found most had no idea that a thick waist was a sign of a build-up of a dangerous type of fat around the internal organs. This "visceral fat" is strongly linked with type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

It is thought that the danger of visceral fat is related to the release of proteins and hormones that can cause inflammation, which in turn can damage arteries and enter your liver, and affect how your body breaks down sugars and fats.

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Did you know your body has two types of fat?

Subcutaneous fat is found just under your skin and is noticeable. It’s the type of fat that jiggles, dimples, and causes cellulite.

Visceral fat is fat on the inside of your body, under your abdominal muscle. It is more dangerous than subcutaneous fat because it can surround vital organs like your liver and heart.

Belly fat is also dangerous because it produces inflammatory molecules that enter your bloodstream. High inflammation levels in your body can trigger a wide range of systemic diseases linked with metabolic syndrome.

While it’s often referred to as “belly fat” because it can cause a “beer belly” or an apple-shaped body, you can have visceral fat even if you’re thin.

Research indicates that the subcutaneous fat found just under your skin is different from visceral fat in a number of ways.

It has been discovered subcutaneous fat can actually improve glucose metabolism and communicate with your organs to elicit beneficial effects.

The Leptin Connection

Most people are not aware that leptin plays an enormous role in the development of obesity. Leptin is a hormone your body produces which is just as important as insulin in determining your risk for Type 2 diabetes and other serious diseases. The hormones your fat cells produce impact how much you eat and how much fat you burn.

You eat a diet which includes too many sugars and grains (grains turn to sugar once you consume them)

The sugar metabolizes to (turns into) fat and is stored in your fat cells

This activity in turn causes a surge in leptin

Your body becomes resistant to leptin just as it can become insulin-resistant

When you’re leptin-resistant, your body no longer hears its own signals to stop eating, burn fat, or pass up sugary foods.

The result? You stay hungry, you crave sweets, and your body stores ever more fat.

When your body routinely stores this much excess visceral fat, you increase your risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, vascular disease, atherosclerosis (hardening of your arteries) and an increased thickness in the walls of your heart.

Measuring Your Diabetes Risk in an Instant

You probably have the most powerful tool available to determine your risk of diabetes right at your fingertips – a simple tape measure.

Your total body fat and overall level of fitness are not the best indicators of insulin sensitivity, your waist size is.

And refined sugar is not the only thing you must avoid when you’re craving sweets.

Starch, in the form of grains and potatoes, metabolizes into sugar in your body and should also be eliminated from your diet if you suffer from excess weight, diabetes or high cholesterol.

Following my nutrition plan is a simple way to automatically reduce your intake of both grains and sugars.

2. Exercise regularly.

Studies show regular, ongoing exercise is extremely important in getting rid of visceral fat and staying rid of it. Exercise also reduces the inflammatory properties of visceral fat that are linked to metabolic syndrome.

One of the keys to using exercise to normalize your insulin and leptin levels and eliminate visceral fat is to do enough of it.

There are three important variables with exercise:

Length of time

Frequency

Intensity

If you’re healthy enough to exercise, you should gradually increase the length and frequency of your workouts to one hour per day.

This is where you should stay until your weight and insulin levels are normalized. When you reach that goal, you can reduce your exercise frequency to three to four times per week.

Your exertion level should be such that it is very difficult to talk to someone next to you. This will insure you’re adequately challenging your cardiovascular system.

If you reach a point where you can’t carry on a conversation at all, back off the intensity just a bit.

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